


Home for Christmas

by jashinist_feminist



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Christmas, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-25
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 20:26:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28323072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jashinist_feminist/pseuds/jashinist_feminist
Summary: Why spend Christmas alone when you can spend it with good friends?
Relationships: Hoshigaki Kisame & Konan
Comments: 6
Kudos: 15
Collections: Akatsuki Gift Exchange





	Home for Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> This is my contribution to the Akatsuki Gift Exchange 2020! I had the lovely prompt of Kisame&Konan in a university setting being really good pals, which was for AgentDemi.
> 
> I hope you will enjoy! I based the university setting on my alma mater! Sometimes I wish I stayed and did a PhD.

The sea brought a cool misty breeze wind, skittering over the waves crashing on the shore, up the stones towards the promenade, into the neat rows of streets, finding its way into the city. Passers-by shivered, pulling up their collars, tucking their coats a little closer to themselves, their scarves around their necks.

As the city shivered, the library sweltered with heat. Packs of students had crammed themselves into small nooks and crannies, determined to complete deadlines.

But even as the students around them worked to their deadlines, there was a buzz in the air. They would be going home soon. Away from damp student houses, half cooked meals, raucous nights out.

Away from the undergrads, the two PhD students crouched over their laptops, in a spot as secluded as they could find. Funding may have forced them to continue living in drafty student digs, but the days of partying and cramming before deadlines were long gone.

They were truly quite different, but somehow, a calm friendship had blossomed between the two.

Kisame hunched over the tiny plastic chair, his muscles practically bulging off the seat. His six foot four frame was clearly not in the mind of the designer when they crammed so many chairs and tables into one building. He wore a jumper with the sleeves rolled up as he typed, showing off his bulky forearms.

Konan perched opposite him. Unlike Kisame, she fit neatly on the chairs, crossing one leg over the other. She wore comfortable lycra leggings with boots, and a jumper as well. Her hair was swept back off her face in a bun, as she gazed down at her laptop.

A din of chatter filled the air, rising over their work.

“I see the library will be open on reduced hours over the holidays,” remarked Konan, nails clicking away at the keyboard of her laptop. “Will you be staying?”

“I’m in two minds,” admitted Kisame, his heavier fingers stabbing the letters. “I mean, it would be good to get away...on the other, it depends where I’m going to go.”

“I see,” noted Konan.

There was a hum of silence.

“I’m in the same predicament,” confessed Konan. “I have nowhere to go exactly.”

The chilly air wafted through a crack in the old window. Konan shivered. Her cheeks were flushed with the warmth of the building, but the outer layer of her skin chilled from the draft. Kisame was much the same, when she looked over at him his nose was pink, his cheeks pink, even the tips of his ears.

“There’s places I can go,” admitted Kisame. “The question of whether or not I’m welcome...is up for debate.”

“Ah.”

There was that too. Konan knew people she could call on, but whether or not they would wish to celebrate the festive season with her was another matter. It was better not to go digging up old wounds. Better to be alone.

She and Kisame worked in silence for another hour, until dusk began to fall, even as it was only mid-afternoon.

Neither of them wished to walk home in the dark, so they packed up their laptops, tucked their study books into their bags, and headed out. Konan wrapped a scarf around her neck, tying it into an elaborate knot at the front of her coat. Kisame simply pulled on a giant hoodie, and tucked the hood up over his ears.

“I’ll see you...tomorrow?” asked Konan.

A wide toothy grin spread across Kisame’s lips. “Tomorrow it is. And this time, we’re getting some of those fancy festive latte things. But from the little indie store around the corner.”

Konan reached up and hugged him, his biceps enveloping her in a hug. Kisame smelt like sea salt and fresh air, and Konan felt comforted by his embrace.

Her boots clicked as she headed down the road to her apartment. Her apartment was part of a series of converted houses, where mainly single working professionals, or mature students, resided. There wasn’t much space, but Konan didn’t need much space.

She hadn’t decorated for Christmas either. There was no point in spending the money, if it was only to be enjoyed by herself alone.

But the whole festive period just felt so... _ flat. _

She felt... _ alone. _

* * *

This wouldn’t do.

There were solutions to everything. Konan was not the first or only student to ever feel lonely. Even Kisame had mentioned loneliness, in his flat above the promenade, overlooking the shore. They’d both be spending Christmas alone, in bare apartments.

It made little sense.

While lounging in the bath, one of the only relatively warm spaces in her apartment, Konan reached for her phone, and then began to scroll through various getaways on the cheap. There had to be somewhere else they could go, to pass through the festive season, while not alone.

An idea began to form…

* * *

The following morning, Konan greeted Kisame with a hug, before they stepped inside to pick up the festive lattes. It was only as they sat down opposite one another, back in the library again, the scent of various latte concoctions of chocolate, orange, praline and more sweetness wafting between them, that Konan slowly slid her phone across the table.

“So I’ve been thinking,” she confessed. “About this Christmas business.”

Olive eyes flickered up to meet hers. “What about it?”

“Well,” Konan tapped the screen with a painted orange nail. “You don’t have anyone to go to, I don’t have anyone to go to...what’s the harm in us going away somewhere and spending it together?”

Kisame looked startled, brows bouncing up his forehead in surprise. Konan wondered if he had ever expected her to ask such a thing of him, if he’d expected anyone to ask such a thing.

Konan knew he found it hard to make friends, especially close friends. They both did, for their various reasons. It was a strange contradiction, that this friendly, polite guy was as adrift in the world as much as she was.

She wondered what had happened to him to make him so guarded. But it wasn’t any of her business. Was it?

Eventually, he swallowed. “Sure. Why not.”

* * *

And that’s how they found themselves once term had finished. Bundled in jumpers, coats, hats and scarves, Konan let Kisame haul her suitcase into the back of his truck, safely tucked beside his. Clamouring up in the front passenger seat, she felt safe as Kisame put the vehicle in gear, and pulled away.

They drove out of the maritime city as mist drifted from the rolling waves, up onto motorways bearing them along flat grey terrain. They drove for what felt like hours, before turning off a small junction and making their way down a long, winding country lane.

The car came to a stop in another place beside the sea, but this time, a small coastal village in place of a city. The afternoon had grown dark early, but this time it only added to the festive atmosphere. Fairylights winked from the trees that lined the streets, as they made their way to the nearest store.

They collected a food supply for the week, and hauled it into the back of the truck, before driving further into the village, where they finally pulled the truck up outside their home for the holidays.

A tiny cottage tucked over the shore, open to the wild waves that drifted in from across the Atlantic. Mist blew in, just like in the city, but instead of being captured by the concrete, it was free to drift and roam over the heathered fields further inland.

Kisame carried in their suitcases, while Konan carried in the shopping. It still felt somewhat strange, to be spending Christmas with a friend, rather than alone, wallowing in memories of the past.

“Just so you know, any academic work on the 24th to the 26th is banned,” said Kisame. “We really ought to relax and enjoy ourselves. For once.”

“Agreed,” Konan stacked the two shopping bags on the empty sides. “I intend to challenge you to Scrabble. It isn’t quite Christmas without a board game, don’t you think?”

“Oh? Well, I was hoping for us to have a movie marathon.”

“A movie marathon? That can be easily arranged.”

They unpacked their shopping, pulling out bottles of wine, a turkey, stuffing, mince pies, a yule log, panetone, to see them safely through the season.

Curling before a fire that Kisame managed to get roaring, Konan nursed a glass of Bailey’s in her hand, as Kisame rested beside her on the sofa, holding his own glass. A companionable silence, no different to the ones they shared in the library, rested in the air.

Yes. This had been the right decision.


End file.
